We have some very, very good news for Europeans (which happens to include myself): we have the European Parliament on our sides when it comes to battling ACTA. If you may recall, ACTA is basically an attempt by the US to impose upon the rest of the world draconian measures like three strikes laws and the DMCA. All parties within the European Parliament have together put forth a resolution that would effectively tackle ACTA.

Theft is not defined by whether or not something physical was stolen. It's taking something that is not yours without permission.

Well, except that nothing is really taken. It is just duplicated. And if someone couldn't afford it anyway, there is also no loss of income.

There are plenty of services that can be stolen

Most services can not be copied without cost.

I would also bet 10:1 that this so-called study was performed by a social scientist, or soft scientist as my friend calls them.

Of course. If a study does not agree with you, it must be stupid or wrong. Have you considered the possibility that it may actually be true?

People pirate because they don't want to pay. You can't get around that basic fact.

Total nonsense. According to your definition I pirate (except that downloading is legal in our country, and I am not looting ships). I spend a substantial amount of my income on copyrighted material. E.g., last month I bought:

No new music this month. I download, because I cannot spend more than 200 Euro per month on copyrighted material. This applies to many people I know as well, they download where the budget is not enough.

Of course, there are also a lot of people who do not spend much on copyrighted material. But there are also hell of a lot of people who do not have any money at all to spend. Do you want to keep them away from culture>

If fact you would rob the incomes of hundreds of thousands of small artists that make their money by selling their music on itunes and other digital music providers. Providers like Apple would just sell their music as part of a monthly service without compensating them.

Except that some of my favorite artists (hi NoMeansNo and Fugazi!) do not mind or encourage downloading. The end result: a lot of people end up liking their material, want to support it, and buy the albums anyway.

Well, except that nothing is really taken. It is just duplicated. And if someone couldn't afford it anyway, there is also no loss of income.

You're taking someone's work without paying for it. If a company goes bankrupt from everyone taking their work without paying it doesn't matter if it was digital or stolen from a factory.

If I invent a cure to a disease and some company takes my work by duplicating it without my permission, was there no loss because nothing physical was taken?

Most services can not be copied without cost.

A service has a cost, hence the fact people charge for them. Or do you think that skipping out on a cab bill is not a form of theft since nothing material was taken?

Of course. If a study does not agree with you, it must be stupid or wrong. Have you considered the possibility that it may actually be true?

The study was likely performed by people that have an agenda, which is common in the social sciences. Even if people had their music purchases tracked (highly unlikely) they would still have to be told that they are being tracked which would compromise the results. The only way to effectively perform such a study would be to spy on people.

Total nonsense. According to your definition I pirate (except that downloading is legal in our country, and I am not looting ships). I spend a substantial amount of my income on copyrighted material. E.g., last month I bought:

That's called anecdotal evidence. Piracy is nothing new and the main reason people do it is because the pirated copy costs nothing.

I expect that there's also at least a weak correlation between poverty and piracy. I'm very skeptical that Tough on Piracy laws are really having much of an impact on piracy rates, at least in the States, due mainly to their highly selective application; only a tiny minority of the people who pirate media ever get sued - so few that most pirates aren't really worried about being caught and prosecuted.